Affiliate Marketing 101 - Part One

I always say this but there are a million ways to make money online! It is not always good to put all your eggs in one basket, and to make money online you should always be ready to diversify and jump on the latest trends. You should really be working a number of options already.

Now affiliate marketing is by no means a new trend but it is, in my opinion, a consistent one. If you are new to affiliate marketing or like some people I know - clueless - then I want to take some time to clear a few things up for you. I’d like to show you in a short series of posts how affiliate marketing can create you an additional source of income.

There are dozens of firms out there that will assist you in your quest to make money in affiliate marketing and one of the reasons many people get involved initially is purely down to the low start up costs (by low I mean zero). It is easy, it is quick and it is free! (I am assuming that if you are reading this then you already have a site/blog and are looking for ways to monetize it!)

The first key I always tell people, is to ensure that your blog/site is something that you are passionate about! Of course you can do a great deal of SEO and other traffic building techniques to get you traffic but I always think it’s great to see a site that people really have an interest in - it is also easier for you to provide good content for your site too. With this in mind, there is the chance that in signing up for an affiliate program you will also know which products to promote, you might even have tried them yourself. There is nothing worse than someone promoting a product they know nothing about. If thats your game then maybe ‘Made For Adsense’ sites is the route you should take, but thats a whole different story.

Actually, on that point alone I must say it really irks me sometimes when I see people promoting totally unrelated products to their content. Possibly it can be down to the fact that you are new to the game, or maybe you just saw the dollar signs and chose the highest paying product? Whatever the reason, don’t do it! To give you an example, if I were reading a blog about Reggae Music, there is a good chance I am reading the site because I like Reggae Music….so why on earth would you put up a banner ad that promotes country and western? There is a slim chance that Iike all kinds of music but chance are if I liked country I would be on a country site!

With all the affiliate marketing programs out there, if you take the time to get to know them and dont just jump in headfirst then you will always be able to find the right ads for your site. Now, in choosing your ads you will be subject to a huge array of options and if you have not already, then sign up for Pepperjam Network or Commission Junction and see for yourself. You will find that the most popular are text ads and banners ads of all shapes and sizes. I will in due course cover all the info you need to know but to make things easy for you, the aim of the game is simply to refer customers to clients. Simple!

You will get paid in a number of ways such as per lead, whereby you will be paid a fixed price typically ranging from 50c to $40 depending on the sector. Companies do this in order to expand their own databases for future promotions…’the money is in the list’ as you will come to know! You can also earn money by taking a percentage of any sales that you refer to the company and again this ranges widely from 5% to 75% depending on the product and the volume of sales you generate in any given month.

Granted this is not a get rich quick method of making money but it is something that you can grow; as your site grows…so will your earnings. It is quite common for people to build up small networks of sites in their spare time and is a good source of additional income to many, myself included.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my feed as I will be publishing a little series that will set you on your way to making money online through affiliate marketing.

You may also feel free to comment or email me with further questions or queries.